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Post Percent of Hospital Deaths with PC Consult
Author: mbordofsky
Date: Jun 3, 2010 10:06 am
Is anyone aware of a target, range, or other stats or standards regarding the percent of hospital deaths for which a palliative care consult is performed?
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+ Re:Percent of Hospital Deaths with PC Consult (by Weissman on 06/09/2010)
Hi--it depends on the hospital's patient population. If you are a major trauma center with many deaths occurring withing 48 hrs of admission (where the time to obtain a consult may be challenging), the percentage seen by palliative care would be lower than say a community hospital with few trauma ed admissions. In general, a range of 50-75% of deaths seen by palliative care would represent excellent penetration of PC services. A good way to look at this is to obtain data on Length of stay for all patients who died; and dividing the deaths into those < 48 LOS vos > 48 hours. Then set a target for penetration of consults for those with LOS > 48 hours and build a CQI initiative to achieve that benchmark.

David Weissman, MD
Re:Percent of Hospital Deaths with PC Consult (by sjcrump on 06/10/2010)
In terms of metrics, ranges, etc. for the appropriate number of consults as a function of patient deaths, there are no standard published numbers that apply to all acute settings. This would be an individually determined goal for your individual health system and the outcomes desired for your setting.

One of the Core 2010 Hospice and Palliative Care Goals for the VA system nationwide is that at least 45% of inpatient deaths have a palliative care consult at each facility.

S. Joyce Crump, Program Manager, on behalf of Rodney Tucker, MD, MMM, Medical Director UAB Inpatient Palliative Care Services
Palliative Care Leadership CentersTM
University of Alabama at Birmingham

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